That's right, there were little phrases of four languages being tossed around over the last few days. We've spent the time in Starogard Gdanski, inland and south of the big port city Gdansk, visiting Babciu's brother Wujek Benek. Here's a pic of Wujek Piotr, Wujek Benek, and Babciu - reunited for the first time in seven years!
Wujek Benek lives with his daughter Garzena, son-in-law Simon, and grandson Nicholas. Garzena is an awesome chef and has been very hospitable over the last few days. We've been staying at her friend's apartment nearby.
Yesterday, we walked around the main square at Starogard Gdanski, a city with about 50,000 citizens according to Wujek Benek's daughter Celena.
It had quite a few stores, including bookstores (including the one I got yelled at in for attempting to exit out of the entrance door, whoops), shoe stores, linen stores, and drug stores.
It even had "lody amerykanskie" - American (soft serve) ice cream:)
It also had a church from the 1484 (which my family here attends)... I can't get over the fact that I'm surrounded by buildings older than America itself!!!! Here's the scene above the altar:
Later, we visited the grave of Wujek's late wife, Ciocia Teresa, where her daughters replanted the flowers on her grave. Polish graveyards are all beautiful because every grave is covered in flowers... people take care of their loved ones here.
The cemetery was surrounded by lovely hills.
In other news, we've generally been doing a lot of driving. Dziadziu has been in good spirits about all the traveling (fav picture of the trip so far):
Today, we drove about two hours to the city of Torun, where astronomer Nicholas Copernicus was born. Babcia's nephew Roman drove us to visit Babcia's cousin Jas and his wife Urszula. Here's a pic of Urszula, her daughter, Dziadziu, Babciu, Wujek Benek, and Jas:
But then, perhaps recognizing that I was antsy to get out and see the main square of the city, which is known for its old architecture, Wujek Roman took me out on a walk to see Torun. Wujek Roman, a retired detective, was paranoid about losing me (because he didn't speak English enough to warn me not to wander off), but no worries - I managed not to get lost. Torun has some of the most beautiful streets I've ever seen.I can't post a ton of pics now due to limited internet, but here's one of me and Copernicus' donkey. I stopped to take a pic with him:
Then we returned to Starogard Gdanski for our last night in this city, and here we are.
I had my first go at Polish whiskey (blech).
Tomorrow we head off to Dziadziu's brother house in Bydgoszcz.
Until next time,
Rach
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